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Fifteen-year-old Jordan McClain’s last joyride ended at the hospital. The police called his grandmother, Sharon Stokes.

“He was in the hospital with a concussion, fractured shoulder blade. And I’m like, for what? 'Please don’t tell me stolen car.' And he was like, 'Yes, ma’am.' And I wanted to choke him then,” Stokes said.

Two weeks ago, McClain and four friends were out all night and needed a ride. He said they noticed a Dodge Caravan in Riverwest and took it.

McClain said he stripped, or “peeled,” the steering column. The group hit the streets, speeding down Holton Avenue. Eventually, they lost control and slammed into another car, then a building. McClain’s cousin is still in the hospital with a brain injury.

McClain is one of the 230 juvenile arrests by Milwaukee police since January. That’s a four-fold increase in juvenile car theft arrests since 2010.

Sometimes, offenders are kids without licenses, speeding away from police and causing crashes that kill themselves or others.

But car theft is only the beginning, according to Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn.

“It’s overwhelming, the young people,” Flynn said. “And this is their gateway crime.”

He believes the spike in juvenile car theft is fueled by a juvenile justice system that treats car theft as a property crime rather than a threat to safety.

“They get to live a real-time, real-life version of 'Grand Theft Auto.' And these young, immature brains find out there’s no consequence,” Flynn said. “That is crazy. That puts the community at risk.”

Flynn said just this year, 30 juvenile car theft suspects have at least two arrests. Several have been busted four times.

“Unfortunately, a juvenile justice system that was founded on the notion of acting in the best interest of the child created a perverse incentive for immature criminals to continue their life of crime,” Flynn said.

However, one University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor thinks Wisconsin’s juvenile penalties are among the nation’s harshest. She believes jail time for young offenders wouldn’t necessarily solve the problem.

“Kids that are detained are more likely to become adult criminals,” Tina Freiburger said. “They’re more likely to engage in subsequent, delinquent behavior.”

She said the key is to identify the biggest offenders.

“Only about 6 percent of the kids are committing the majority of the offenses. So if we identify that 6 percent, then removing them from the community can have a big impact on the crime rates,” she said.

McClain has his own theory.“That’s just what they like to do – steal cars, go do something. They don’t feel like walking or getting on the bus, so they go steal a car,” he said.

The teen said he spent three days in detention after his first car theft.

“That was my punishment, three days in DT. That’s good enough for me, though. I appreciate that,” McClain said.

He hasn’t yet been charged in the theft that nearly killed him.

Still, McClain isn’t sure if he regrets the decision.

“It wasn’t just a joyride. We was on a mission … We was on a mission, that’s all,” McClain said.

Despite the spike in car thefts, juvenile crime overall has been declining for decades due to early intervention programs.

Research shows the majority of kids who commit crimes don’t grow up to be criminals.